Well, new equipment rules are out and my local gamers are arguing the fine print on them.
First:

Equipments are part of the force now.
Fair enough, my gut tells me that now every equipment is Unique, since all of them have the gear symbol.

Since there are no other options to include Equipments on your force, even figures like D+ Scarlet Witch chase have to fall in line and can't have duplicates of the same equipment on your force, right?

Now, what happens with Mad Jim Jaspers?
He has this trait:
Since he adds Equipment to the sideline by his own effect, this equipment is free of the Unique rule? can you add a duplicate Equipment via The Crooked Market?

I can’t get the new rules to load on my phone so I can’t quote the effect, but from reading them earlier on my computer and clarifications I’ve read, characters with start the game traits still have their equipment come from outside the game, so you could still get multiples of the same equipment through those effects.

Edit: Finally got the Rulebook on my phone:

Characters with start the game with equipment traits don’t use the rules for assigning them as part of your force.

Just for clarification, it isn't so much they don't use the assigning rules as much as you can choose to either use their own trait for equipping the given equipment or you can choose to use the start the game equipped like any other character can do.